Straight after the crucial match against Hungary, several members of the Russian men's team joined the live broadcast to converse with one of the official commentators, GM Simon Williams. We give the transcript below.

SIMON WILLIAMS: A great result!

PETER SVIDLER: We finally won something.

SW: How does it feel?

PS: I've forgotten the feeling, frankly! (everyone laughing) I haven't won a team event with the Russian team for an age or so. But Evgeny, actually, you played in Bursa.

EVGENY TOMASHEVSKY: Yes, I won that World team championship 5 years ago, but okay, it's been also quite a long time since that success.

SW: Is it relief now?

PS: Yes, it's a bit of a relief to finally stumble over the finish line.

SW: I mean I have to say, from start to finish, to be honest, you should've been in the top six - but you have been the best team. I think it's fair to say that you sort of led from the France.

PS: It seemed reasonably smooth this year. The guy who said he doesn't speak English, who is sitting over there (nodding at someone beyond the screen), he won perhaps the most important game of the tournament eventually yesterday, against Sergey Movsesian. Because had we lost to Armenia, which at one point seemed possible, then still a draw would have sufficed today, but it'd have been a much more nervous situation, and you don't really want to lose any matches, so... I think his contribution is going to be remembered the most.

SW: Let's mention who is sitting over there...

PS: Ian Nepomniachtchi is, because there's no space here before the screen for all of us.

SW: You say that game was very important. (To Tomashevsky) Any other sort of? I followed your ending against Bacrot; it was quite special, because a lot of people didn't realise it was a draw.

ET: We had a lot of key moments during this tournament, I agree with Peter who mentioned Ian's game against Movsesian. But okay, I think the key moment was that all members of our team played their best chess at some moments. Five players, not just one.

SW: Very good team spirit in your team, I guess.

PS: That's a very good point, because Sasha [Grischuk] isn't even here right now - he's been feeling under the weather the whole tournament, but in a really crucial match against France he won a brilliant game against Fressinet. I think he'll be the first to say that it wasn't his most stellar tournament, but even having said that, he still won a decisive game in one of the most important matches.

[...]

SW: Can I ask you how you are going to celebrate?

PS: There will probably some imbibing of luquids at some point.

SW: Okay. Good. Russian vodka?

PS: Emm, no.

ET: Russian vodka will be in Russia!

SW: Haha, okay!

PS: Somebody told me that it's actually the drink of choice in the UK.

SW: It can be, yeah. Russian vodka of special types is quite consumed...

PS: Because I personally almost don't drink vodka at all! At some point, I had this discussion about the most drinking countries in Europe, and this came up.

SW: There's a horrible crase on people that if you drink vodka and Red Bull it's like a horrible monster...

PS: No, that doesn't sound like something I'd like to ever try...

SW: You get a lot of people running around crazy, basically, so...

(switching to discussing the live games of the women's Russia - Germany match)

SW: Double celebration, of course, there!

PS: Yeah, that will be good.

(after some discussion of the games etc.)

ET: I want also to add that it's big pleasure to be here in Iceland. It's a really nice experience, a very pleasant country, which is quite suitable for Russians.

PS: The climate seems familiar. I can't say I don't prefer sun and sea to this, but at least, you know, it feels like home!

SW: Isn't it nice to play in the same hall where the Fischer - Spassky match took place?

PS: Yes, it's a good chance to... if not to participate in history, but sort of get close to an incredibly important event in the history of chess, because, I think, without that match the problems we've had over the past ten years winning team events wouldn't have happened, because chess wouldn't have boomed in the West without the Fischer - Spassky match.

GM Levon Aronian gave an interview to the Azerbaijani newspaper Echo summarizing his performance in the Canidates tournament:

"The main in the tournament was to take the first place, I failed to do that. There were a lot of crucial moments in the competition. The game I lost against Peter Svidler [in Round 11 - CN] had a certain importance for me. I played terribly that game and exactly after it I felt demoralized and extremely unhappy with my play.

Ukraine team captain Alexander Sulypa has given his final interview to sport.obozrevatel.com related to his team participation in Istanbul. He think that the bronze medal the team has won is "A fair result".

Peter Svidler described on the site of the Russian Chess Federation how the members of the Russian team played a correspondence game against fans. Alexander Grischuk suggested to use the Berlin Wall in response to 1.e4, but at the end the choice between this and other variations was made with the help of a toss.